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#HarryAugust

Every so often I read a book that’s so good I want to shout about it from the roof tops, to grasp strangers in the street by the lapels and exhort them to read it, and to phone all my friends and shout: “YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!” at them ’till they relent.

I’ve just finished such a book and thought that instead of putting myself in slippery house-top peril, or at risk of being arrested, or deafening my friends I would blog about it.

It’s called The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

It’s by Claire North.

And it’s amazing. Huge in scope yet beautiful in detail. About the whole of humanity and yet also – at its heart – simply about one human relationship. It’s about hate and love and ambition and sacrifice and…

Well, that’s basically all I’m going to say about it. I could tell you the bare outlines of the story but (apart from the fact you could read that elsewhere) I think this is a book that it’s good to just dive in and read. I could try to suggest that it’s one genre of book or another but actually it’s one of those books that is very hard to categorise. And categories can be misleading: in fact, even with what I’ve just told you, I may have suggested something about it that it’s not.

So, if you’re reading this then go, now, and read something else. Read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.